One of the significant developments at the 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Abu Dhabi was the non-adoption of the agreement on investment facilitation for development (IFD). Despite opposition from countries such as India, negotiations for an IFD agreement at the WTO were launched in 2017 on a plurilateral basis by 70 countries. This was done through a process known as the Joint Statement Initiative. The IFD agreement was finalised in November 2023. Today, around 120 of 166 WTO member countries (more than 70% of the membership) back the IFD agreement. This agreement aims to create legally binding provisions to facilitate investment flows.
In Abu Dhabi, these 120 countries wanted to include the IFD Agreement as a plurilateral agreement (PA) within Annex 4 of the WTO Agreement. It is critical to recall that while the WTO is a multilateral trade organisation, Article II.3 of the WTO Agreement categorically allows for PAs. These PAs bind those WTO member countries that accept them and do not create rights or impose obligations on the remaining members.
